Photo: Getty Images AsiaPac
At the end of this week, the genocide Olympics will begin. Despite enjoying some events every four years, I will not be watching.
Why? Well because the Chinese ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan (Xinjiang).
Last Thursday was Holocaust Remembrance Day - a day when we repeatedly say "NEVER AGAIN". Those words seem hollow when we look at what is happening on our watch.
The Genocide is not the same. There are no mass killings; no gas chambers; no Cambodian killing fields. Instead the Chinese are using everything at their disposal to eliminate a people. Children are forcibly separated from their parents and sent to boarding schools. Women are raped to get them pregnant . There is torture. Thousands of mosques have been destroyed and millions are in internment camps for re-education and forced labor.
Now the East Turkistan Government in Exile (ETGE) is calling on the public to boycott watching the Beijing Olympics in protest against China's ongoing genocide.
"Many groups including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and even American and European organizations have asked the IOC to cancel the Genocide Games. The IOC said no, so we asked governments to boycott the Olympics fully, and they also said no," said Dr. Mamtimin Ala, the EU Representative for the ETGE.
"We also pleaded with athletes not to go, and they ignored us. So we now plead with the public not to watch the games to make this the least-watched Olympics in history," said Dr. Ala said.
I have never called for a boycott of anything and I am not doing so now. I'm just curious if you intend to watch. So will you?